Chap. 80.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 44 of an act approved
April 16, 1903, entitled an act to raise revenue for the support of
the government and public free schools and to pay the interest on
the public debt, and to provide a special tax for pensions, as author-
ized by section 189 of the Constitution, as amended and re-enacted by
an act approved March, 14, 1910. (S. B. 102.)

Approved February 29, 1916.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That
section forty-four of an act approved April sixteenth, nineteen
hundred and three, entitled an act to raise revenue for the sup-
port of the government and public free schools and to pay the
interest on the public debt, and to provide a special tax for pen-
sions, as authorized by section one hundred and eighty-nine of
the Constitution, as amended and re-enacted by an act approved
March fourteenth, nineteen hundred and ten, be amended and
re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Sec. 44-a. Tax on collateral inheritance. Where any estate
in this Commonwealth of any decedent shall pass under his will,
or the laws regulating descents and distributions, to any other
person or for any other use than to or for the use of the grand-
father and grandmother, father, mother, husband, wife, brother,
sister, or lineal descendant, of such decedent, the estate so pass-
ing shall be subject to a tax at the rate of five per centum on
every hundred dollars’ value thereof; provided, that such tax
shall not be imposed upon any property bequeathed or devised
where such bequest or devise is exclusively for State, county,
municipal, benevolent, charitable, educational or religious pur-
poses.

(b) The personal representative of such decedent shall pay
the whole of such tax, except on real estate, to sell which or to
receive the rents and profits of which he is not authorized by
the will, and the sureties on his official bond shall be bound for
the payment thereof.

(c) Where there is no personal estate, or the personal rep-
resentative is not authorized to sell or receive the rents and
profits of the real estate, the tax shall be paid by the devisee or
devisees, or those to whom the estate may descend by operation
of law, and the tax shall be a lien on such real estate, and the
treasurer may rent or levy upon and sell so much of said real
estate as shall be sufficient to pay the tax and expenses of sale,
et cetera.

(d) Such payment shall be made to the treasurer of the
county or city in which certificate was granted such personal
representatives for obtaining probate of the will or letters of
administration, or in which the real estate is situated.

(e) The corporation or hustings court of a city, the circuit
court of a county or city, the chancery court of the city of Rich-
mond, the law and chancery court of the city of Norfolk, or the
clerk of the circuit court of a county or city before whom a will
is probated or administration is granted or in which the real
estate is situated, shall determine the collateral inheritance tax,
if any, to be paid on the estate passing by will or administration
or operation of law; taking the assessed value of the real estate
as a basis for the fixing of said tax on real estate and in the
event the property so passing is limited to a life estate, or less
than an absolute estate, with remainder or limitation over, the
court or clerk shall apportion said tax among those entitled to
said property, according to their respective interests therein,
in accordance with the rules of commutation of life estates or
other estates less than an absolute estate prescribed by the
statutes of this State, and shall enter of record in the order
book of the court or clerk as the case may be, by whom such
tax shall be paid and the amount to be paid. The clerk of the
court shall certify a copy of such order to the treasurer of his
county or city and to the auditor of public accounts, for which
services the clerk shall be paid a fee of two dollars and fifty
cents by the personal representative of the estate or persons
receiving the property in event there is no qualification. The
auditor of public accounts shall charge the treasurer with the
tax, and the treasurer shall pay the same into the treasury as
soon as collected, less a commission of five per centum. Every
personal representative or other party or officer failing in any
respect to comply with this section shall forfeit one hundred
ollars.

(f) Any personal representative, devisee or person to
whom the estate may descend by opervation of law, failing to
pay such tax before the estate on which it is chargeable is paid
or delivered over, shall be liable to damages thereon at the rate
of ten per centum per annum for the time such estate is paid
or delivered over until the tax is paid, provided the amount of
said tax has been determined by the court or clerk as hereinbe-
fore directed, which damages may be recovered with the tax,
on motion of the Commonwealth, and in the name of the Com-
monwealth against him, in the circuit court for the county or
in the corporation court of the city wherein such tax was as-
sessed, except that in the city of Richmond the motion shall be
in the chancery court. Such estate shall be deemed paid or de-
livered at the end of a year from the decedent’s death, unless
and except so far as it may appear that the heir, devisee, leg-
atee or distributee has neither received such estate nor is en-
titled then to demand it.

2. The collection of current revenues being affected, an emer-
gency is declared to exist, and this act shall be in force from its
‘passage. |